WHEN Freddy Bourdais lost his job he took it in his stride, opened his own company and went into direct competition against his former employers.

Plastic Mouldings Northern was launched on the South Church industrial estate, near Bishop Auckland, a month ago and now employs four people.

Mr Bourdais and partner Mark Rigg, who worked for Brownridge Plastics, in Newton Aycliffe, for 12 years, remortgaged their houses to inject the capital into the venture. Mr Bourdais also sold his house in France and invested an inheritance.

The company manufactures low quantity plastic formed products such as transportation trays and water features - similar to those fitted by Charlie Dimmock on the BBC 1 show Ground Force.

Plastic Mouldings Northern was helped by Durham County Council, Wear Valley County Council and Sedgefield Borough Council, which helped with a business plan, helped to find a factory site and even gave the firm a building rent free for 12 months.

Mr Bourdais believes that although the company has not been trading long, it has an advantage over its competitors.

He said: "Our service is much better because we are much more committed. We have no overheads and this makes our products 30 to 40 per cent cheaper than competitors. We only have just over two-and-a-half months of orders at the minute, but it is actually going from strength to strength.